Worldpay Review, Summarized

Worldpay (formerly Vantiv and currently owned by FIS Global) is one of the largest merchant acquirers in the United States, but is it right for your business? In this Worldpay review, we’ll break down Worldpay pricing, features, as well as discuss top alternatives—so you have all the information you need to decide what’s best for your payment processing needs.

What Is Worldpay?

Overall, Worldpay is a global merchant service provider that works with small businesses as well as large enterprise organizations to allow them to accept and process payments. Along these lines, as we mentioned briefly above, Worldpay is an omnichannel payment provider—as they can facilitate in-person payments through a point of sale system, online payments through an ecommerce platform, and more.

This being said, it’s important to understand that although this provider is most commonly referred to as Worldpay, it’s been known by a handful of different names throughout the company’s history. In 2018, Worldpay was acquired by Vantiv Inc. and the two merged to become Worldpay Inc.—because of this, you’ll sometimes hear and see Worldpay referred to as Vantiv.

Worldpay Features

With this overview in mind, let’s discuss the different services offered by Worldpay.

According to the FIS website, they break down their payment processing services into two branches: Small Business and Large Enterprise Businesses. Under their small business branch, they indicate that they serve a variety of small business industries—including grocery stores, quick-shops, and supermarkets, retail shops, food-service businesses, personal service business, and professional service businesses.

This being said, however, on the whole, it’s important to note that Worldpay is not particularly clear or transparent about the specifics of their services. Although, as we’ll discuss, they provide information regarding the general capabilities of their services, they do not offer in-depth details regarding the features and costs of their services.

In fact, you’ll find that it’s even more difficult to make sense of their offerings as their older websites (before the FIS acquisition) under Worldpay are still live, in addition to the newer FIS Worldpay site. Additionally, you’ll find that information varies significantly based on your location. Whereas there is very little information available on the U.S. version of the FIS Worldpay site, you can find more details available for U.K. businesses on the corresponding version of the site.

Overall, and again, as we’ll discuss below, it seems that even though Worldpay provides the behind-the-scenes payment processing for U.S.-based businesses, they outsource much of their other offerings for small businesses.

Let’s learn more.

Credit Card Processing

First and foremost, Worldpay offers credit card processing for their small business customers. In short, this process refers to the electronic system used to move money from a customer’s bank (issuing bank), into a merchant’s bank (acquiring bank) as payment for goods or services.

As a facilitator of this process, here’s what Worldpay provides:

Accepts Variety of Payment Methods

With Worldpay, you can accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express cards as well as business, corporate, gift, pre-paid, and other types of purchasing cards. Non-card types of payment you can accept are ACH transfer, electronic benefit transfer (EBT), and checks by mail or image capture.

Worldpay also works with contactless payments and digital wallets—including Amazon and Apple Pay.

Merchant Accounts

Worldpay is a merchant account provider—meaning when you sign up and are approved for their service, you’ll receive a merchant account that’s unique to your business. This merchant account will allow you to accept and receive funds from all of the different types of payments we listed above.

Additionally, this means that Worldpay is a direct processor—processing all transactions themselves instead of utilizing a third-party processor.

Virtual Terminals

With Worldpay’s virtual terminal, you can accept credit card payments, debit card payments, and electronic checks anywhere you have an internet connection. Using your standard web browser, you also can set up recurring payments, generate refunds, and process phone transactions.

Worldpay web-based payment page. Image source: Worldpay support

FastAccess Funding

Worldpay’s FastAccess Funding allows you to receive funds from card payments quickly and based on your schedule.

With this functionality, you can set up your own deposit schedule—accommodating weekends and holidays—as well as receive funds in hours, as opposed to days.

In-Store Payments

On top of the behind-the-scenes processing, Worldpay also offers a suite of solutions to allow you to actually accept in-store payments.

Payment Terminals

At a basic level, Worldpay offers a variety of credit card terminals that you can use to accept payments in-person. Although Worldpay doesn’t specify the terminal models they offer, they do write that they offer stand-alone terminals, mobile terminals, and smart terminals.

POS Systems

Worldpay offers the services that make up a point of sale system—terminals, payment processing, virtual terminal, etc.—individually and bundled together.

As a payment processor, Worldpay integrates with a variety of third-party point of sale systems—meaning you can use the hardware and software of that system while Worldpay takes care of the behind-the-scenes processing.

Additionally, as we’ll discuss below, Worldpay offers their own POS packages, including more traditional countertop systems, as well as mobile systems.

SmartPay Series

With their SmartPay Series, Worldpay offers a fully-functional POS bundle that includes software, hardware, and of course, payment processing. The SmartPay series has three software options—Bronze, Silver, and Gold—as well as three Android-based POS hardware options.

The SmartPay Series technology allows you to manage the whole of your business operations, from taking and processing orders to managing employees and customers.

Hardware options for the SmartPay Series point of sale. Image source: Worldpay From FIS

Mobile POS

In addition to their more traditional POS system options, Worldpay also offers a mobile POS system (mPOS).

With this mPOS, which Worldpay actually outsources to SwipeSimple, you can connect a mobile card reader to your smartphone or tablet and input transactions, send receipts, issue refunds, and review past transactions through the SwipeSimple POS app.

Online Payments

In addition to all of the solutions Worldpay offers for accepting in-store payments, they also provide a variety of service options for online payments as well.

Authorize.Net

If you already have an ecommerce platform and simply need a payment gateway to accept online payments, you can use Authorize.Net through Worldpay.

BigCommerce

On the other hand, if you’re looking to start an online store, Worldpay offers full-service ecommerce capabilities through their partnership with BigCommerce. In this case, you’ll use Worldpay for payment processing, and BigCommerce to actually build and run your online store.

Worldpay-BigCommerce online payments page. Image source: BigCommerce

Additional Services

On top of the solutions we’ve reviewed thus far, Worldpay includes a variety of additional tools with their service—including security, analytics, and more.

Security

With Worldpay’s payment processing, you receive the security you need to protect you and your customers’ data. Through OmniShield Assure, you receive fraud prevention, tokenization, and encryption on all credit card transactions.

Additionally, this security tool includes breach assistance, EMV assurance, and PCI-Assist to help you maintain PCI-compliance.

Analytics

First, Worldpay includes iQ—which collects and analyzes your sales history to provide insights into how to better manage your business. With iQ, you can access adaptable reports and alerts regarding chargebacks and statements.

Additionally, Worldpay also offers analytics through BizShields and Insights powered by Womply. This platform provides a holistic look at your payment data—with custom reports and actionable insights. This platform also includes business management and growth tools that allow you to compare performance, attract and retain customers, and monitor your business profile.

Worldpay merchant interface. Image source: Worldpay Support

Worldpay One

Support

Worldpay offers 24/7 support year-round, including different helplines to address issues with specific products. You can also submit questions through the Worldpay website to work with their customer service team via email.

In addition, Worldpay features articles, guides, and videos on their website that explain the particulars of the payment industry, such as how online credit card processing or interchange fees work.

Worldpay Pricing

At this point, considering all of the different payment services Worldpay offers, you’re likely wondering: How much does Worldpay cost?

Unfortunately, this is a difficult question to answer.

As we mentioned above, Worldpay does not include a lot of detailed information on their website and this applies to their pricing as well. Overall, Worldpay encourages you to find pricing by contacting their sales team directly or by building a quote on their website.

Therefore, with a quote-based pricing structure, Worldpay will customize their costs based on your business and the services you need.

Estimating Worldpay Costs

This being said, although the only way to actually estimate Worldpay costs will be to work with their sales team, it’s worth considering some of the factors that will dictate the quote you receive.

First and foremost, your Worldpay pricing will vary based on the details of your business—what you do, what size business you are, what industry you’re in, etc.

In addition, your costs will depend on the specific services you need. If you only need behind-the-scenes payment processing for your existing point of sale system, your costs will likely be much lower than if you decide to purchase a full POS system from Worldpay.

Moreover, regardless of how you accept payments with Worldpay, you’ll have to pay credit card processing fees. It’s unclear what kind of payment structure Worldpay uses for these fees—but generally, you can expect to pay a per-transaction fee—with online payments typically charged at a higher rate than in-person payments.

Finally, Worldpay may also charge a handful of flat or incidental fees. Some of these types of fees you might face include:

Monthly account fees

Minimum processing fees

Terminal rental or lease fees

PCI-compliance fees

Account setup or cancellation fees

Batch processing fees

Chargeback fees

NSF fees

With all of this in mind, although Worldpay does not include pricing information on the U.S. version of their site, it’s worth mentioning that they do offer some pricing details on the U.K. version—which may offer some insight into what pricing will look like.

For U.K. businesses, Worldpay breaks down the pricing of their solution based on whether you need in-person or online payment processing. Overall, although the details vary, you’ll see that Worldpay charges the following types of fees for these businesses:

This being said, based on this information, it’s possible that Worldpay charges a significant number of fees—especially compared to other merchant service providers on the market.

Of course, once again, it’s important to note that this information does not directly apply to U.S. businesses, and therefore, to find out your possible Worldpay costs, you’ll have to work with their sales team directly.

Worldpay Pros

Now that we’ve discussed everything this merchant service provider has to offer, let’s break down our Worldpay review. How can Worldpay benefit your business over other solutions?

Here are some advantages to consider:

Full-Service Payments Solution

As one of the biggest merchant service providers in the U.S., one of the most notable advantages of Worldpay is that it’s a full-service payment solution. In other words, Worldpay offers a breadth of solutions—allowing you to accept and process payments in a variety of ways and customize a solution that works best for your business.

Whether you need to accept online payments through an ecommerce platform, integrate with an existing POS system, or purchase a brand-new POS bundle, Worldpay can work with your business.

Scalable

Along these lines, another advantage of Worldpay is the scalability they offer. Not only is Worldpay scalable for small businesses—you can choose to change or adapt your solution as your business grows—but they also provide more robust options for larger businesses as well.

As we mentioned above, Worldpay offers a variety of solutions for larger and enterprise businesses—enabling you to continue to work with them, no matter how much your business grows.

International Reach

As a company that has evolved greatly through acquisitions over the years, Worldpay continues to have an international reach—accommodating businesses all over the world. In fact, according to their website, Worldpay has processed 75 billion transactions for over 20,000 clients around the world.

In this way, if your business works in multiple locations or participates in international commerce, Worldpay has the experience and reach to support you.

Dedicated Merchant Account

Finally, unlike many of the newer payment processors in the industry—Square, Stripe, etc.—Worldpay provides each of their customers with a dedicated merchant account.

Although you don’t technically need a dedicated merchant account to accept and process payments, there are benefits to having one. Most notably, a dedicated merchant account is much more secure than working with a payment aggregator that pools all of their customers’ funds into a single merchant account.

With a Worldpay dedicated merchant account, you’ll receive account stability that other processors, again, like Square and Stripe, are criticized for lacking.

Worldpay Customer Reviews

When it comes to positive Worldpay reviews available online, customers write that they find Worldpay to be a reliable service with little disruption. Additionally, many reviewers state that Worldpay customer service is very accessible, friendly, and knowledgable—offering the necessary help to resolve issues and find solutions.

Moreover, users state that Worldpay is generally easy to use and very efficient.

Worldpay Cons

On the other hand, there are also downsides about Worldpay to keep in mind as well.

Here are two worth considering:

Pricing

First and foremost, Worldpay’s lack of pricing information is a significant drawback. Although quote-based pricing technically allows you to receive a cost based on your business’s needs, this structure also makes it difficult to know whether you’re getting a fair detail and compare the cost of their service to other solutions.

Compared to other merchant service providers on the market, this puts Worldpay at a large disadvantage. Although some traditional merchant service providers still charge these kinds of fees, many companies have eliminated extraneous fees and made their pricing details transparent and readily available.

Lack of Transparency

Continuing off the lack of available information about Worldpay pricing, overall, Worldpay’s lack of transparency is a notable downside of their service.

Although Worldpay provides general information about their service on their website, as we’ve discussed, they don’t offer many details regarding software, hardware, and overall features of their different products.

Additionally, as we mentioned earlier, Worldpay, in fact, seems to outsource many of their services—like BigCommerce as an ecommerce solution and SwipeSimple as a mobile POS. When you could easily work with these of these providers on their own, it’s hard to argue that you should instead go through Worldpay to do so.

Moreover, with the different acquisitions associated with Worldpay—from Vantiv to Worldpay to Worldpay From FIS—it’s even more difficult to decipher the available information online.

WorldPay Customer Reviews

Unfortunately, there are numerous negative Worldpay reviews online.

Many reviewers have written about steep cancellation fees, hidden fees, and even upcharges from month to month.

Although some reviewers praise Worldpay’s customer service, others write that customer service is extremely unhelpful when dealing with issues. In particular, users site issues regarding held funds, chargebacks, and other account problems.

Furthermore, it’s worth noting that even though Worldpay has an A+ rating on the Better Business Bureau, they also have a total of 96 complaints in the last three years.

Of course, customers with a negative experience are often more likely to leave a review than those with a positive one, however, these reviews are something to keep in mind.

Top Worldpay Alternatives

Before you decide if Worldpay is the right choice for your business, it’s always worth considering top alternatives—to see if there is another provider that can better meet your needs.

In particular, you might consider these two options:

Payline Data

Payline Data has a reputation as a transparent payment processor with affordable rates. With Payline Data, you can process payments online, in person, and using a mobile device for all major credit cards.

Payline Data is very upfront about their pricing structure, with low monthly fees and straight-forward interchange-plus pricing. All in-person transactions are charged an interchange fee and a markup of 0.2% + $0.10. Online and keyed-in transactions are charged an interchange fee and a markup of 0.3% + $0.20.

Payline Data also has no long-term contracts, no PCI-compliance fees, and no early termination fee, all of which sets Payline Data apart from Worldpay.

All in all, if you’re looking for a traditional merchant service provider that can offer a customized solution for your business—as well as provide transparent pricing—Payline Data is a great alternative to Worldpay.

Fattmerchant

On the other hand, if you’re willing to trade-off a higher monthly fee for some of the lowest credit card processing fees on the market, you’ll want to look into Fattmerchant as your top Worldpay alternative.

With their pricing, however, Fattmerchant charges a monthly subscription fee and then credit card processing fees with no markup. Instead, you will just be charged the interchange fee plus $0.08 for terminal transactions and $0.15 for other types of transactions.

Additionally, Fattmerchant does not charge cancellation fees statement fees, or batch fees, and offers 24/7 technical support as well as a variety of security tools.

All of this being said, if you’re a higher-volume merchant that can offset a more expensive monthly subscription fee, Fattmerchant will be able to offer some of the cheapest credit card processing out there—and in a much more accessible and transparent way than Worldpay.

The Bottom Line

At the end of the day, it’s not always easy to find a merchant service provider.

With this in mind, though, based on everything we’ve discussed in our Worldpay review, you should have the information you need to decide if this is the right payment provider for your business.

When it comes down to it, however, it’s worth noting that as a legacy payment processor, Worldpay will likely be best-suited for enterprise level-businesses. These larger businesses will be able to better negotiate their Worldpay costs and will be able to benefit from working with such an expansive company.

Small businesses, on the other hand, will probably be best-suited finding a more approachable, transparent, merchant service provider. In this case, if you’re looking for a more traditional, merchant account provider, Payline Data and Fattmerchant are both worthwhile options.

On the other hand, if you’d prefer a more user-friendly, tech-friendly provider with flat-rate pricing, you might consider Square for accepting in-person payments or Stripe for accepting online payments.

Nevertheless, you know your business best, and therefore, the ultimate choice is up to you. This being said, however, if you do decide to inquire about Worldpay for your business, you’ll want to be sure you understand exactly what they’re offering and how much it will cost—as well as review any contract you receive for terms, added fees, and cancellation policies.

Matthew Speiser

Matthew is a former staff writer at Fundera. He has written extensively about ecommerce, marketing and sales, and payroll and HR solutions, but is particularly knowledgeable about merchant services. Matthew's writing has been published in Business Insider, The Fiscal Times, Best Company, and NJ.com, among others. Matthew was also a co-author for Startup Guide—a series of guidebooks designed to assist entrepreneurs in different cities around the world. He has a degree in journalism from the University of Delaware. Email: matthew.speiser@fundera.com.